Naschycast #73 - Blu-Ray Round Up!

The Naschycast returns for a brief overview of the Paul Naschy Blu-Rays that are currently available in Region A. Troy and I decided to record this show to give our North American listeners an indication of the wealth of high-definition offerings still on retail shelves – as long as you search the right retailers! Consider this also a warning that these wonderful discs don’t stay available forever and, in many cases, when they’re gone they are gone for good.

We tried and failed to do a chronological rundown of the Blu-Rays that have come out over the last eight years or so with nods toward some blank spots in Naschy’s career we’d like to see filled with HD glory. The individual companies that have been releasing these Spanish horror classics have been doing us all a good service and let’s hope the releases continue past next year’s long awaited DR. JEKYLL AND THE WOLF MAN!

If you have any comments naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send them. We hope that you have had a good 2023 and that 2024 will be even better! Thank you for listening.

Naschycast #72 - Jon Kitley Visits!

This episode we are joined by Jon Kitley to talk about his love of and history with Paul Naschy! Readers of Horror Hound magazine are aware of his regular column ‘They Came from the Krypt’ but he has also published the book ‘Discover The Horror’ which is part genre exploration and part autobiography. Both Troy and I recommend it. As you might expect from such a conversation, the three of us range all over the place touching on more topics than we could comfortably list.

Suffice to say that we discuss horror conventions (where we all met), non-fiction horror genre books (which we all collect) and our shared fascination with movies and monstrous stories. Of course, we do finally get around to talking about Naschy with Jon falling squarely on my side of the critical Mummy divide! It is about time I had someone to stand with me on that hill! HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB was our guest’s introduction to the great man’s work and it becomes a big part of our chat. As a bonus, the legendary Spanish character actor Victor Israel gets more than a few minutes of glowing examination too. We had a great time talking Naschy and we hope you’ll enjoy listening. 

If you have any comments or question naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send your emails. Thank you for checking out the show and we’ll be back soon.

NaschyCast #71 - INQUISITION with Marc McCloud

Marc McCloud drops by the show to discuss Naschy’s tale of the Inquisition in France. Marc is the owner of Orbit DVD and a longtime friend of Troy and I, but this is the first time we’ve ever talked about our mutual love of the films of Paul Naschy. Our guest chose Naschy’s directorial debut as the topic and we were happy to oblige.

Religious hypocrisy is a big part of our conversation and this gets us into the thorny area of what to call the subset of exploitation films of which this is a part. We note the influence of the Catholic Church on the nature of the fears that undergird the horrors of the film and wonder about the connections to the Nunsploitation genre. The villains of the story come under scrutiny with an eye toward how they use their relative places of power to extract their desires from those around them. And we speak a little about the ways that women had to work to accomplish things in the society ruled by male religious leaders. Join us for what I will refuse to call a ‘romp’ through INQUISITION.

We end the show with a short email from Kurt and if you’d like to send us your thoughts naschycast@gmail.com is the address. Thank you for listening! 

 

Beyond Naschy #36 - ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN (1970)

We return to the Beyond Naschy series with guest Bob Sargent making the choice of film this time out.ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN (1970) is not a movie that is often called out as a favorite of even the most hardened Euro-Cult horror fanatics. In the past it has been mistaken as a Jess Franco effort with the director’s name, Pierre Chevalier, suspected of being another of the prolific filmmaker’s many pseudonyms. This appears to not be factual but anyone stumbling across this movie unaware couldn’t be blamed for making that assumption. It shares many of the standard tropes and oddities of one of Franco’s color gothics from the period which makes it a good companion piece of Franco’s EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN (1973) and DRACULA, PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN (1972). It even sports Franco’s original Orloff actor Howard Vernon as ‘Professor’ Orloff who has somehow created an invisible man for the usual mad scientist reasons. The film’s story is a mish-mash of prematurely buried daughters, accidental murders and greedy servants who are not above a bit of graverobbing. Add to that one of the strangest rape sequences in cinema history and some obviously missing story pieces and you have an entertaining if often confusing 76 minutes. We talk about the cast and crew, including their various Naschy connections. We discuss the missing scenes that can be glimpsed in the French trailer for the film and in the extras included on the old Image DVD. We find some moments of real beauty in the cinematography and some unintentionally funny scenes that just don’t work. The English dialog causes quite a few laughs as we quote some standout circular conversations. Part of our discussion centers on the term ‘guilty pleasure’ and how each of the three of us feel about applying that overused phrase to our love of Euro-Cult cinema. As you might expect, there are more than a few verbal trips down barely connected cinema paths with the final forty-five minute mailbag section becoming a memory lane remembrance of our late friend Craig Ledbetter. If you’d like to add you voice to the show naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send your thoughts and questions. Troy and I are very happy that Bob has joined us again and with a little luck we will have around for the rest of this year’s shows! Thanks for listening.